


What You Need

by thanatopis



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-02
Packaged: 2018-01-21 16:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1557317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thanatopis/pseuds/thanatopis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Akashi doesn’t gouge his eyes out like his teammates horrifically expect, instead he has a breakdown—embarrassingly enough on the court when the buzzer rings 91 to 89 and he's realized he’s finally lost."</p><p>or</p><p>Akashi goes and seeks mental council and makes a new friend because of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What You Need

Akashi recommends to his father that he go see a therapist when Seirin beats Rakuzan at the Inter High.

Akashi doesn’t gouge his eyes out like his teammates horrifically expect, instead he has a breakdown—embarrassingly enough on the court when the buzzer rings 91 to 89 and he’s realized he’s finally lost.

The rest blurs.

…

The only things Akashi _can_ seem to recall were his thoughts when he dropped to his knees with a terrible lurch, his knees cracking with an impact he didn’t feel as his hands hit the free throw line.

When Akashi re-watches the playbacks of the game because he can’t remember what happens _after_ , he struggles with the urge not to turn the damn thing off and burn it as he watches someone with his face look overwhelmed, broken, and lost and it’s painful to watch.

Akashi’s father doesn’t agree nor disagree with the suggestion when Akashi brings it up some days later at dinner.

His father’s hand pauses slightly from cutting at his wood fire steak before resuming the _see-saw_ motion as he quirks a brow.

“I think I have someone in mind.” He says pleasantly enough and the sound of his father’s fork scrapping against his incisors makes Akashi cringe.

“I’ll call Dr. Namikawa and set up an appointment for you.”

Akashi nods, says his thanks and that’s the last they ever speak of it.

…

Akashi has been seeing Dr. Namikawa for a year now and he doesn’t know personally how much he’s changed or if he’s changed any. Though, Akashi has comfort in how Tetsuya says he can see a difference now, like how his eyes, even though he still has his heterochromia, seem a lot less haunted. Even Kagami (because you can’t hang out with Tetsuya and _not_ have that big oaf two steps behind) begrudgingly mentions that Akashi seems a lot more stable than when he was a year ago.

The incident with the scissors goes unmentioned thankfully.

Funny enough, Akashi likes Kagami. He’s rough around the edges, loud, and sometimes painfully dense but there’s a softness there that Akashi finds peculiar, that attracts him in a sense and he’s not really sure how he’s supposed to deal with someone so… _straightforward_ as Kagami.

Tetsuya on the other hand is simple—is comfortable and Akashi’s never liked change—he tries to avoid it as much as possible if he can help it, but then something Dr. Namikawa had said about ‘good change and allowing it into your life’ resonates with Akashi and he lowers his shackles just a bit.

Unknowingly, Akashi finds himself making an unexpected friend.

…

Some days, Akashi wishes he went to school closer to Tokyo.

He’s in his bed back in Kyoto—back at Rakuzan settling for the night when he absentmindedly wonders how Kagami is doing—if he too is getting ready for the start of the new week and Akashi laughs, short and quick, because he knows Kagami is not.

There’s a strange lightness in his stomach when he goes to sleep that night.

…

Tetsuya goes and visits his parents one weekend leaving Kagami and Akashi without a buffer to even out their contrasting personalities. It’s the first time the both of them have ever spent any time alone and Akashi is nervous at first, worrying that without Tetsuya there to play peacekeeper this day will end in some sort of disaster.

Kagami suggests a game of street ball, playing some 1-on-1 and Akashi smirks, not resisting the urge to boast and tease and Kagami rises to the call predictably.

The walk there is filled with clever and snarky remarks on Akashi’s part and…more _slow_ ones on Kagami’s—it’s stimulating for him though, being able to talk to someone who doesn’t watch him with a slightly weary eye like Tetsuya and Shintarou sometimes do when they think Akashi doesn’t see.

Sometimes those looks set him on edge, make him snappier than what he would like but the looks _Kagami_ gives him when he thinks _he’s_ not looking…

Well, those make him feel limitless.

…

“You’ve been seeing your friends a lot more I’ve noticed—the one’s from the rival school.” Dr. Namikawa says it matter of fact as Akashi sits cross legged opposite from the middle age man. He ponders about what the doctor writes about that particular observation in that notebook of his. Months ago Akashi would have asked— _demanded_ …

Akashi shrugs. His gaze drifts to the window, wondering why that statement makes him feel so odd like it does.

“Surprising isn’t it?” Akashi begins, smiling slightly.

“The two that had the most influence in my downfall are the same ones I find the most solace in. I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.”

The doctor nods, pausing writing in his notebook.

…

Akashi shows up at Kagami’s apartment out of the blue one Saturday night during the Spring Break of their second year.

Kagami sputters when he opens the door and sees Akashi standing right outside his door with a tote bag thrown over his shoulder that is unmistakably an overnight bag and marvels vaguely at how weird his life has steadily become ever since coming back to Japan.

“Akashi—you—you—” Akashi’s brow arches amused and he doesn’t even wait for permission to come in before he pushes Kagami aside with a hand to his chest, and if Akashi notices how his hand drags slightly over Kagami’s abs as he pulls away, he ignores it.

Akashi steps into the living room, looking around this way and that as he plops his bag on the couch, humming appreciatively.

“I’m actually impressed. Your house is fairly clean—you know, with it being just you.”

Kagami instantly looks offended.

“Of course I keep it clean you idiot.” He grumbles a couple more things under his breath as Akashi looks on mirthfully.

Kagami doesn’t ask what he’s doing here or why—he has a pretty good idea at what Akashi is trying to escape from.

They don’t talk much about Akashi’s home life or his on-going therapy sessions, but Kagami knows that they’re sensitive subjects to ask about, so he doesn’t. Kagami likes to think that’s one of the reasons Akashi spends so much time with him, because Kagami doesn’t dwell, doesn’t prod.

Kagami sighs, scratching the back of his neck and the aspiration in the sound is almost—would he dare say— _fond_.

“You hungry? Got a couple of things I could make right now, or we could run up to the store and…?”

Akashi smiles, eyes crinkling around the corners and Kagami’s heart slightly, but noticeably picks up. More bewildered with confusion than anything else, Kagami wonders when the hell did _this_ happen.

Kagami snorts, hand coming up to rest on his hip.

“Don’t look so pleased, it’s creepy.”

Akashi just laughs, walking smoothly into the kitchen with poise and grace that makes Kagami gulp, his throat suddenly sand paper dry as Akashi just barely brushes past him.

“Anything you whip up will be fine, thanks.” Akashi says and then looks over his shoulder. There’s a gleam in his mix matched eyes that makes him look all too intimidating for completely different reasons than the regular ones.

“I’ll even help you.” There’s playfulness in Akashi’s voice, Kagami thinks, that a man could dangerously become addicted to if they weren’t careful.

Kagami nods, blinking a few times feeling as if he’s missed something dire as he follows Akashi into the kitchen.

…

“You keep doing that.” Akashi says one afternoon.

He’s helping Kagami study for college entrance exams, while doing his own homework and he can’t ignore how every so often Kagami will look up from his work and watch him. What he’s watching, Akashi doesn’t know but he can’t concentrate on his work when Kagami does it.

“It’s distracting.” Akashi finishes writing the rest of his sentence in English before putting his pencil down, gazing back at Kagami, who surprisingly, hasn’t stopped looking. It gives Akashi pause.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, mildly concerned and his brows furrow.

Kagami opens his mouth then closes it, then does it again and Akashi looks into his eyes searching for some type of an answer and what he finds instead makes his breath catch.

“Feel free to hit me after.” Kagami says quietly and Akashi wants to ask why, but then Kagami’s lips just barely touch his before he rears back, gaze questioning, and Akashi wants to chase after that feeling.

He does, in the form of calling Kagami a suffering idiot before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling the larger boy towards him with a lurch that launches the both of them back on the floor and Kagami sputters as he lands on top of him.

On Monday, when Akashi’s teacher asks him, rather disappointedly, why he doesn’t have his English homework he has to resist the urge to seriously say that it was because he was more interested in tracing the lines of his boyfriend’s abs with his tongue than work on verb conjugations.

A grin pulls at his mouth and it’s blinding.


End file.
